, 1887-10-06
LOOKING AErrR Losr CARS.
A Product OF RafroadinE by which
Track is Kept OF Rolling Stuck.

A Product of R~lilroading by Which
Track is Kept OF Rolling Stock.
Car chasers are among the most i'm
portant employees of the great trunk lines
of railroads. The title exactly describes
their business. On some railroads they
are called travelling car agents. The de-
partment head who employs them is also
called variously the car agent, the car
accountant OF the superintendent of roll
ing stock. These officials have as many
as a dozen assistants on some of the great
roads, nine or ten being clerks at $50 or
$40 a month, and the rest being chascrs,
who travel all over the country on FREQ
passes hunting up missing cars, and who
receive Sl20 or 500 a month and ex-
penses. H ar
Great railroads AVE immense NUMBER
of cars. The Central railroad az Now
Jersey has about $1,000 of all sorts; tho
Pennsylvania railroad, CO., 900 o. 10000.
These cars are at the present moment in
every state in the Union. They 60 yghcr-
ever the freight with which troy gro
loaded is billed to, and thrs 80 ccatsc., q
from Winnipeg to Mexico end I 90 hp-c1s
to Bangor. a nos minuto Grd tho.oU1'l
system, obtaining on al railroaGo exec :
the very smallest, records oveTy Eac, >.
ment of every car. The sEUtem oTc7a. ?
at all junction Pointa, whsTo too ar
record the ownership and nuTnE,@
every car that passes from thci- rec
to a connecting line, ard imnlcdi-.
notify the roads whose cars ~:
thus in motion, as well as a.
car accountant of their own road. The
notifications are made by postal card. IL
each general Office car account books ere
kept, and the movements of tho com.
pany's own cars are recorded from day
to day. Whenever a loaded car IL
emptied on a foreign road that road uscs
it to carry a load of freight back In the
direction of the road to which the car be
longs. 1t pays at the rate of seven
eighths cents a mile for this use Of its
neighbours property in this way, and il
it should happen that there was no
freight to be shipped in that direction
within a reasonably short time the empty
car is sent along and mileage is paid on
it as if it were laden.
1t is when a number of cars are lost
sight of that a travelling agent is sent out.
Sometimes it happens that the cars are
Or little branch roads idle and overlooked,
sometimes they have fallen into the
hands of a company that is short of cars
tilu LUZ VI DuSulSSS, anu Is uSll5 ever
foreign car it can get, and sometimes
other equally simple causes delay it. If
it is in use by a company short of cars,
that company pays mileage on it, until it
sometimes happens that a car is worn
out and paid for before it is returned, or
else it is never returned at all. If q car
chaser demands the return of his COM
pany's cars, they are sent home, but
often others are seized and put to use
when his back is turned and he is travel
ing elsewhere. If a car is smashed up in
a railroad accident it is either rebuilt, a
new n is made, or the price of the cal
is paid to the n by the company on
whose track the smash up occurred.
Every contingency is provided for in
the system that has grown up among the
great roads. Recently the master car
builders of the country agreed o. a set of
schedule of prices for every conceivable
damage to cars, and the result is going to
be that the rolling stock of all the roads
will grow more and more uniform in
style and quality, since it is agreed that
only serviceable parts shall be put on cars
that need mending, no matter how ex-
pensive and fancifpl those parts may
have been Observation-Disclosures York Sun.